WWUTT 2643 Paul and Barnabas Refuse Sacrifices (Acts 14:1-18)

Paul and Barnabas in Iconium: Signs, Wonders, and Opposition

Paul and Barnabas performed many great signs and wonders in Iconium and Lystra. The people wanted to worship them as gods, but Paul urged them to turn from their vain things to the true and living God when we understand the text.

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Here once again is Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky. In our study of the book of Acts, we are on to chapter 14. At the end of the previous chapter, we read about how Paul and Barnabas went on to Iconium, and so that's where they are here at the start of chapter 14, and they go on to some other cities and regions as well.

So let me begin reading in verse one. We'll go through verse 18. Hear the word of the Lord. Now it happened that in Iconium, they entered the synagogue of the Jews together and spoke in such a manner that a large number of people believed, both of Jews and of Greeks.

But the unbelieving Jews instigated and embittered the minds of the Gentiles against the brothers. Therefore they spent a long time there, speaking boldly with reliance upon the Lord, who was testifying to the word of His grace, granting that signs and wonders be done through their hands.

But the multitude of the city was divided, and some sided with the Jews and some with the apostles. And when an attempt was made by both the Gentiles and the Jews with their rulers to mistreat and to stone them, they became aware of it and fled to the cities of Lycaonia, Lystra, and Derbe, and the surrounding region.

And there they continued to proclaim the gospel. And at Lystra, a man was sitting who had no strength in his feet, lame from his mother's womb, who had never walked. This man listened to Paul as he spoke, who, when he fixed his gaze on him and saw that he had faith to be saved from being lame, said with a loud voice, Stand upright on your feet.

And he leapt up and began to walk. And when the crowd saw what Paul had done, they raised their voice, saying in the Lycaonian language, The gods have become like men and have come down to us. And they began calling Barnabas Zeus and Paul Hermes, because he was the chief speaker.

And the priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates and was wanting to offer sacrifice with the crowds. But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their garments and rushed out into the crowd, crying out and saying, Men, why are you doing these things?

We are also men of the same nature as you, proclaiming the gospel to you, that you should turn from these vain things to a living God who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them.

In the generations gone by, he permitted all the nations to go their own ways. And yet he did not leave himself without witness, in that he did good and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling your hearts with food and gladness.

And saying these things with difficulty, they restrained the crowds from offering sacrifice to them. Now we'll see how far we get here. We go on in the rest of chapter 14 and Paul and Barnabas will also return to Antioch, the first Antioch in Syria that they were in.

So this particular chapter divides up this way. We start verses one through seven, as you may have noticed, with Paul and Barnabas in Iconium. And then the next portion goes from verses eight to 23. We didn't quite get that far, but that's Paul and Barnabas traveling to Lystra.

And then after that, Paul and Barnabas returned to Antioch in Syria. That closes the chapter verses 24 to 28. So we get kind of a smaller sermon in the middle here, not as long as the sermon we read from Paul previously in chapter 13.

But as you see the people wanting to offer sacrifices to Paul and Barnabas, well, they tear their garments and discourage them from doing so, turning them to the one true God. After this great miracle that Paul and Barnabas performed, this miracle done by the hand of the Lord as God is confirming his word through these apostles using signs and wonders.

Very common thing we see in the book of Acts, these signs and wonders are meant to confirm that the word being spoken to them comes from God. But even those miracles are not enough to turn those people to the true God.

Sometimes they want the gifts without the giver. We see that happen in a lot, even in our world today, right? You can even find that kind of idolatry in the church. We'll consider that a little bit further on.

Faith, Jealousy, and the Boldness of the Apostles

So let's come back to verse one. Now it happened that in Iconium, they entered the synagogue of the Jews together and spoke in such a manner that a large number of people believed both of Jews and of Greeks.

Same sort of thing that happened for them in Pisidian Antioch, in which they preached in the synagogue. And at first, a lot of Jews and even those Gentiles that were with them in the synagogue came to faith.

They believed, or at least they believe what it was that Paul and Barnabas were saying, to the extent that they wanted them to come back and preach some more. But when they came back the next Sabbath and so many Gentiles showed up, well, then the Jews had a different attitude about this.

Oh, if so many more Gentiles are going to come to believe in this Jesus than Jews, now they're filled with jealousy, the text says. And they tried to speak contrary to what it was that Paul was speaking.

Now, keep that in mind, because even here in chapter 14, those that were opposing Paul and Barnabas in Iconium will try to come back in these other cities that Paul and Barnabas go to and attempt to drive them out from there.

So the Jews get pretty hostile against this message. They do not want Jesus Christ to be honored and worshiped. They want it to be the Jewish religion. You've got to follow the law of Moses. That's how you can be saved.

But from the sermon, carrying over the sermon from chapter 13 into chapter 14, remember Paul said that the forgiveness of sins has been preached through Christ. By faith in him, you are justified and not by keeping the law, since you never could have been justified by your keeping of the law.

So now they go on to the next city and they continue preaching there. But the unbelieving Jews instigated and embittered the minds of the Gentiles against the brothers. So you have a large number of people who believe, both of Jews and of Greeks.

Initially the reaction is very, very positive. But then you've got unbelieving Jews that start stirring up the Gentiles. This is a theme that will continue even later on in Acts. And so the Gentiles are now led to believe, there's some Gentiles that will believe that we have to keep the law of Moses in order to be saved.

So that's one way that the Jews will stir up the Gentiles. But another way they stir up the Gentiles, we'll get this later on. This will be more clearly articulated in the narrative later on. But another way that they stir up the Gentiles is by getting the Gentiles to recognize Paul and whoever else is with him is teaching you to honor a king other than Caesar.

And so the Gentiles will get upset about that and they'll realize that by this Christ whom Paul proclaims, we can't make our living through the idolatrous practices that we have. Whether that's through spells and incantations, the books that they would sell that had the different spells in them, or making little silver idols that probably were in the likeness of the gods that were worshipped in that city there, or little figurines of the temple, small little replicas of the temple that people could take with them, the different temples of the gods, things like this.

So when somebody made a living off of the paganism in their city and they recognize that Paul comes in preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, and if people start believing in Jesus, then they won't follow our pagan religions that they're making money off of.

That's when hostility among the Gentiles would be stirred against them as well. And that may not be the direction that the Jews take this necessarily, or it could just very simply be that the Jews make the Gentiles aware, hey, do you know what it is that Paul and them are doing?

Not that the Jews are telling them, your way of life is going to be disrupted, your joy and your paganism you won't have anymore if people become Christians here. It's not necessarily that they would approach it that way, but at least making the Gentiles aware of the fact of what Paul and Barnabas are doing, so it stirs the Gentiles against them.

So then verse three, therefore they spent a long time there speaking boldly with reliance upon the Lord. So the therefore, after you see this hostility that starts arising against them, it says they spent a long time there.

The therefore is about speaking boldly with reliance upon the Lord. So they're still speaking, they're still preaching, but they're trusting that God is going to do this work in this city. And God is the one testifying to the word of his grace.

That's the next phrase. So reading that all together, it's kind of a three-part sentence. Therefore, they spent a long time there speaking boldly with reliance upon the Lord, who was testifying to the word of his grace, granting that signs and wonders be done through their hands.

So this is Paul and Barnabas preaching. They're relying upon God who is showing his mighty work. The word that Paul and Barnabas are preaching in this place is the word of God. And it's as if God is going here.

Let me confirm it to you. Look at these amazing signs and wonders that Paul is doing in your midst. But then verse four, but the multitude of the city was divided because you've got the unbelieving Jews, you got them stirring up Gentiles and some sided with the Jews and some sided with the apostles.

And of course they did. Of course, there were some that sided with the apostles because the apostles were healing the sick. You know, this is just like what we saw with the Jews in the gospels as well.

You would have some Jews that were saying this man, Jesus has a demon and the other Jews are going, how could a demon heal people like this? I mean, this is clearly the signs of God. God has to be with Jesus for him to be doing these things.

Nicodemus saying to Jesus in John three, we know that the Lord is with you, that you are a man sent from God because no one can do the signs that you do unless God is with him. People recognize this. Demons don't do these kinds of signs and wonders.

Demons wreak havoc. They destroy people. When evil spirits, unclean spirits come upon a person, it's devastating. They don't heal people. Jesus or rather the demons never heal anybody. Jesus would heal.

The demons would never heal. I remember R .C. Sproul preaching on this. I think it was in his Roman series. In fact, I can't remember which chapter, but I seem to remember their Sproul saying that Satan has never done a miracle in his life.

Like you could see some pretty amazing supernatural things that could be done through the power of Satan, but they're not miraculous. Satan's not healing people. He's not turning water into wine. He's not making a person to walk upon the water.

He's not dividing the Red Sea. You know that these are not the works and the powers of Satan. There could be some supernatural evil thing that can be done under a demonic power, but it's not constructive.

It's not healing people. It's certainly not clearing their minds and helping them to be sober minded and understand the word of the gospel. That would definitely not be the work of Satan. So people, even unbelievers can recognize this.

The work of unclean spirits is destructive. And what Paul and Barnabas are doing is giving people new health and new life. So the people, of course, are siding with the apostles and some are listening to the word that the apostles are proclaiming because they know it's got to come from God.

Look at the signs that they're doing. And they are convinced then when Paul and Barnabas say, this is from the Lord, that they will turn and believe in Christ. Then verse five, and when an attempt was made by both the Gentiles and the Jews with their rulers to mistreat and stone them.

So now you see the hostility is escalating. Now it's going beyond embittering the minds of the Gentiles against the brothers. As it said in verse two, now it's escalated to the point of, well, we need to kill these guys because we can't make them stop.

More and more people are following them. And you have Jews that are angry about that. And even Gentiles who are upset that their way of life in their city is being upended by these two gospel preachers.

So they're going to mistreat and stone them. Paul and Barnabas become aware of it. They flee to the cities of Lycaonia, Lystra, and Derbe and the surrounding region. And there they continued to proclaim the gospel.

So the gospel is still going out, signs and wonders being done by their hands so that many people come to faith and believe. Let's continue on. Now we're in Lystra and Derbe, verse eight. And at Lystra, a man was sitting who had no strength in his feet, lame from his mother's womb who had never walked.

This man listened to Paul as he spoke, who when he fixed his gaze on him and saw that he had faith to be saved from being lame, said with a loud voice, stand upright on your feet. And he leapt up and began to walk.

The Lame Man in Lystra and the Power of Faith

Now, let me back up here for a moment. This looks like the same sort of miracle that Peter and John did to the lame man outside the beautiful gate back in Acts chapter three. You remember that, of course, this was a man who was over 40 years of age.

He's sitting outside the beautiful gate begging for alms as he often did. The people knew him. They recognized him. He had never walked in his entire life. He had shriveled up legs. It wasn't just that, you know, you could look at him and say, well, why doesn't the guy get up and walk?

Does anybody know his story? No, you could look at him and tell his feet were lame. He had never used these legs before, so they were shriveled up and no good. And Paul and or sorry, Peter, Peter and John tell that man to stand up.

Peter saying to him, I have no gold to give to you. But what I do have, I give to you in the name of Jesus of Nazareth. Stand up and walk. And the man stands up and walk. He stands up and he walks. And and Peter does not say nor does it say in the narrative of the text there that the man had enough faith to stand up and walk.

So here in this text, it does say. Paul fixed his gaze on him and saw that he had faith to be saved from being lame. So he said with a loud voice, stand upright on your feet. Does that mean if this man did not have enough faith that he would not have been healed by Paul?

Well, keep in mind that the faith that we have comes from God. So this is still a work of God. It's not because this man had enough faith. Therefore, he was saved. But we understand, as said in Ephesians two, eight, By grace, you are saved through faith.

And this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God. So even when we are granted faith, that is the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, turning us from unbelievers to believers. And this man is listening to Paul speak in the account in Acts three.

There had not yet been a sermon proclaimed by Peter and John there in Solomon's portico where all of this was taking place. So they had not yet preached that day. The people saw the man healed and then listened to Peter preach.

In this occasion, Paul is preaching. And it's evident that the man's heart is being stirred to believe what Paul is proclaiming. And that's what Paul recognizes. The work of the Holy Spirit is already being done in this man's heart.

He fixed his gaze on him and saw that he had faith to be saved from being lame. And this may have been some sort of granting by God upon an apostle here to be able to see this. Who can look at somebody else and know just by looking at them, they definitely have enough faith.

How would you know that? Unless you were to ask them a question and hear their own proclamation of faith. So this is apparently something that the Spirit grants to Paul here, that he's got this ability now to look at this man and know that the faith, the Spirit is stirring in this man enough.

When I tell him to stand upright on your feet, God is going to do it. That's what Paul knows, looking at this man. And so he says to him, stand upright on your feet. And he left up, it says, and began to walk.

The miracle was immediate. And I always try to emphasize this whenever we read about these miracles and acts. Because any of these faith healers or any of these charismatic people today who claim to be able to heal never do anything like this.

Their miracles never, never, never, never look like this. You can't find one account of somebody who is shriveled up and lame in their legs, cannot walk, no physical possible way that they could do it.

And then just some charismatic faith healer goes, stand up and walk, and they do it. In fact, if you go to those events that are like Benny Hinn or Catherine Crick or Ken Copeland, or who are some of the newer guys now, a lot of these are names.

I mean, Catherine Crick is newer, but a lot of these names even go back back to when I was charismatic a couple decades ago. So still the same, the same guys. Benny Hinn back in the 90s was making prophecies that were failed prophecies, exposing him as a false prophet 30 years ago.

And somehow the guy is still able to do it today and has not been checked out because of the wicked things that he's preached in the name of Christ. He's not actually doing. But anyway, as I was saying, when you go to their healing events, they are never bringing up to the front those people that are actually lame, actually in wheelchairs, actually blind, actually are deaf and cannot hear.

They don't bring any of those, the ones that you can physically tell this person is definitely is definitely lame. There's definitely some sort of physical disability with this person. Like you can look at them and tell they are never brought up at these healing events and healed because that would expose that the jig is up.

And this person who claims to be able to do healing is not actually healing anybody. Here's the miracles as we see them in acts. They are done on command. And it happens. This man leaves up and he begins to walk.

And when the crowd saw what Paul had done, they raised their voice, saying in the Lycaonian language, which was just most likely Greek, the gods have become like men and have come down to us. And they began calling Barnabas Zeus, who, of course, is the thunder God.

And Paul Hermes, who is the messenger of the gods, because it says Paul was the chief speaker. And the priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city. Now, again, this is the city of Lystra. And there have not been any archaeological remains that have been uncovered that reveal that there was a temple of Zeus there.

So whatever this temple was, it wasn't like one of the major temples of Zeus. There was one in Athens. There was one in Olympia. And by the way, that that great statue of Zeus that's listed among the seven wonders of the ancient world, that was that was in Olympia.

So this is a different location, must have been like a smaller temple, not one of the great landmarks of the past, but maybe a smaller place. They have uncovered at Lystra evidence that there was a cult of Zeus there.

So there so there was a cult of Zeus at Lystra, even though they've not been able to find the remains of a temple. Could have been that what's being called a temple here may not have been much bigger than a synagogue.

Just could have been a much smaller place. And that's one of the reasons why some great temple has not been unearthed there. But they had a priest of Zeus whose temple was just outside the city. Might have been one of those satellite worship places that were apart from the main temples of Zeus again at Athens and at Olympia.

So anyway, he brought oxen and garlands to the gates. They wanted to offer sacrifice. He wanted to offer sacrifice with the crowds. But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard it, they tore their garments and rushed out into the crowd crying out.

If you'll remember back in where was this Acts chapter 12, Herod was killed by God because the people were exalting him as a god. And and Herod would just accept it. He was just accepting this praise from the people.

And the Lord struck him dead because, as it said in Acts 12, 23, he did not give God the glory. So he was eaten by worms and breathed his last. Will you contrast that here with the attitude of Paul and Barnabas that when the people want to exalt them as gods and pay sacrifice to them, Paul and Barnabas are renting their garments and saying, no, don't give us tribute in this way.

Going out in a verse or going on rather in a verse 15. Men, why are you doing these things? We are also men of the same nature as you. This is Paul and Barnabas saying we're not divine. In other words, we are proclaiming the gospel to you that you should turn from these vain things, empty things, meaningless, can't actually give you what you want from them.

Like they're worshiping Zeus. They're worshiping Hermes. They are laying up sacrifices to them. But they never get anything back from them. Turn from these vain things to a living God who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them.

These gods that the Greeks worshiped were made by human hands, whereas God, the true and living God is the one who made all things. Going on into verse 16 in the generations gone by, he permitted all the nations to go their own ways.

And yet he did not leave himself without witness in that he did good and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling your hearts with food and gladness. Like the good things that you enjoy.

This came from the true God whom you did not worship. It is not enough to know that God exists simply by the things that have been made. You know, the argument that we have there in Romans 1, 19 through 20, that all things, that the evidence of God is clearly seen in all that has been made so that men are without excuse.

His eternal power and divine nature are even clearly seen in everything that has been made. But knowing that, knowing of the existence of God is not enough to save you. Having that natural revelation of God is not enough to save.

You need Christ. You need to believe in the son whom God sent to die on the cross and rise again from the dead. And only by faith in him can you be saved. In verse 18, Paul and Barnabas saying these things with great difficulty, they restrained the crowds from offering sacrifice to them.

So they really had to persuade these people from not giving them a sacrifice. Instead that they would turn their attention to the Lord Christ and be saved. But Paul and Barnabas continue to receive resistance.

Even after convincing the people not to sacrifice to them, they get resistance from the Jews. And that's what comes up next. So we'll pick up there when we come back to our study of Acts chapter 14 next week.

But in the meantime, we understand the truth of the gospel, that it's only by faith in Christ that a person can be saved. It's not enough for a person to be aware that God exists. For as James says, even the demons believe and tremble.

They know God exists, but they don't worship Christ. And that is where our hearts need to be with the Lord Christ who died and rose again from the dead so that all who believe in him will not perish, but have everlasting life.

So go forth and share this gospel with others as well. Heavenly father, we thank you for these things we've read once again, they would be a reminder to us that we would be servants of the living God, that we would not fill our lives and our minds and hearts with vain things, but we would turn from those empty things to the true God.

He alone satisfies, he alone saves, and he alone has promised to us eternal life with him as fellow heirs with Christ of his eternal kingdom. Forgive us our sins and lead us in paths of righteousness for your name's sake.

We ask this in Jesus name. Amen.